Manufacture of pulp rovings



July 13, 1937. J. c. SHERMAN I I MANUFACTURE OF PULP ROVINGS Filed Match 4, 1956 2 Sheets-Sheet l In van Z01 John 6351112 711010 July 1937- J. c. SHERMAN MANUFACTURE OF PULP ROVINGS 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 flzvelzial' 6357261"!!! 011 Jailzz Filed March 4, 1936 GNN Sm;

Patented July 13, 1937 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE MANUFACTURE OF PULP ROVINGS John 0. Sherman, Attleboro, Mass.

Application March 4, 1936, Serial No. 66,985

' l i Claims.

This invention discloses a novel method of converting paper-making pulp into individualized and relatively untwisted strands and reeling these up in a condition which permits their being spun on conventional spinning machines into stout, serviceable yarns.

In my companion application filed concurrently herewith Serial No. 66,986 now Patent No. 2,072,138 I disclose a method of forming ribbons of paper-making pulp which may conveniently be utilized as the preliminary step in this present invention and so much of said application is herein disclosed as is necessary to the understanding of this case, though some of its features are omitted, as non-essential to my present disclosures per se.

In this present invention my procedure is, by preference, identical however with that of said companion application up to the stage at which the partly-dewatered ribbons of pulp are engaged by a rubbing device for the purpose of rounding them into a form similar to the roving of a textile operation, but in this present invention a radically new method of rounding the ribbons is disclosed not only for the purpose of more suitably transforming them from ribbons to rovings but for the purpose of effecting their orderly delivery into a collecting system without sideway sway, from which collecting system they may pass directly to a spinning operation.

In my said companion application a large number of such ribbons (usually one hundred or more) are delivered as formed upon a paper making screen in closely-spaced parallel-lying and forwardly-moving rows to a rubbing device and are caused to pass rapidly onward in contact with such screen and the rubbing device while they are becoming rounded, thence emerging as dangling lengths which tend to twirl be-- cause of the reactions set up by the rubbing device.

In some instances, as when these ends fall into large cans, these motions may not beobjectionable, but if one wishes to catch the dangling lengths and convey them to creels or other colthe present invention.

In the drawings:-

Fig. 1 shows a conventional longitudinal elevation of the rubbing device of my companion application above noted with so much of the ribbon forming apparatus of that application, in outline, as is necessary for the understanding of this present invention.

Fig. 2 is, in general, an end elevation of the right-hand end of Fig. 1, but is here modified to embody the novel features of this present invention.

Figs. 3, 4, and 5 show in plan view three successive positions of the rubbing parts of Fig. 2

Fig. 6 shows in conventional diagrammatic form as a .longitudinal elevation the ribbonforming and rubbing devices with a device for collecting the delivered rods in reeled-up disposition together with a like collecting device in reserve.

Fig. 7 is a plan view of the collecting parts on approximately the line '|l of Fig. 6.

In Fig. 1, paper-making pulp-stock is delivered from a source I through a pipe 2 fitted with a valve 3 into the tank 4 of a cylinder-mold machine. The upright right-hand wall of the tank is discarded and the side walls are given at their right-hand ends a concave contour complemental to the curvature of the wall of the cylinder 8. The pulp flows directly from the open end of the tank onto, and its water flows in part through, a screen I as said screen passes upon the rotating cylinder 8 over the opening in the tank at the point 6.

Preferably the cylinder-mold has a stationary suction quadrant as shown dotted at 8a in register with the open end of the tank. This suction quadrant may be evacuated through the outlet pipe 9.

As the screen I passes upwardly along the open end 6 of the tank 4 it collects ribbons of forwardly-moving pulp because the formation of the cylinder wall itself or of the screen is such as to permit no stock to flow except upon spaced parallel foraminous stretches of the screen; this construction being more particularly described in said companion application.

One such ribbon is shown, as formed from the stock in the tank, at l0, passing thence over a suction box l l evacuated through the pipe l2. Passing thesuction box the ribbon, here shown at "la in partly compacted form, is further compacted and conditioned upon the screen by means disclosed in said companion application and ap-' pears subsequently at lob where it passes over the breast-roller or mandrel Ila, thence going downwardly to and around the'retum-mandrel Mb, thence past the shower-pipe l5, over and under the guide and take-up rollers lia, lib

and so back to the cylinder-mold periphery by the movement of which it may be driven.

During the downward progression of the screen 1 from mandrel Ma to mandrel I 4b the thin, narrow ribbons of only partially dried pulp (of which only one is shown at lllb) are, in my companion application, in engagement with the.

rubbing device which there consists as illustrated in Fig. 1 of a belt I 8 passing around mandrels lla, Hb, said belt being given a slight rapid lateral oscillation in directions perpendicular to the plane of the drawings. 'A freely-rotating backing-roller, l4c, preferably faced with soft rubber, is so mounted that it may be brought into very light contact with screen 1 to ensure suitableengagement of screen with belt l8.

Obviously the swaying motion thus set up in the ribbons of pulp as they become rounded will persist on their emergence from the device shown unless means are devised to arrest that motion without interfering with their steady forward motion.

In Fig. 2 my present method of stilling the rods-that is, of arresting their swaying or gymtory motionis illustrated. The mandrels carrying the endless belt I8 are here differentiated into the upper mandrel lla which is oscillated by the connecting rod 33, and the lower -mandrel l'lb which is not oscillated.

The oscillation of the upper mandrel Ha is accomplished through the connecting rod 33 bya motor-driven wheel 34 to which the connecting rod is pinned as by the pin 36', the other end of the connecting rod being connected to the mandrel l'la by the swivel 32 and the pin 36.

The non-oscillating mandrel l'lb revolves freely in its bearings. Both mandrels with their belt I8 may be moved to advance with the ribbons only by frictional engagement of the belt with the positively driven screen 1 or may be positively driven in synchronism with the screen.

Both mandrels are supported in suitable bearings all of which and the motor-driven wheel are supported by a frame 30 held on its foundation by bolts 3|.

In Fig. 2 only two of a hundred or more parallel-lying ribbons of pulp lb, 101), are shown lengthened to accommodate any desired numher of ribbons.

As these ribbons are brought into contact with the belt l8 the oscillating motion of the belt rubs and rounds them into individually rod-like forms.

To make this construction operative I have to form the belt l8 of a material capable of taking up within itself the slight distortions induced in it by its movement over two mandrels only one of which oscillates. To this end I preferably though not necessarily use as belt-making material an endless sheet of thick soft rubber composition.

The total amplitude of the to-and-fro or oscillatory motion given to the mandrel lla. will be determined in consonance with the size of roving (i. e., pulp rod) to be formed. Specifically I find that if I am making a roving which corresponds to a #8 yarn of the conventional count of cotton yarns, I may form a pulp ribbon which when dried will measure between one and two thousandths of an inch in thickness and about one-quarter inch in width. With such ribbons I may give the rubbing device an oscillation at its upper extremity with an amplitude of from one-quarter to five-sixteenths of an inch. If however the roving is to be the equivalent of a cotton #40 the amplitude-will be correspondingly less, or specifically about one-sixteenth of an inch or less.

The wheel 34 may be welded on its rear face and at its center 35 to an axle, while its exposed face isslotted, the slot 31 terminating at the center of the wheel and extending radially outward so that the desired throw may be obtained by positioning the pin 36' suitably in the slot and looking it against radial displacement by a nut 38.

By reference to Fig. 2 it will be noted that the two ribbons, dotted where they lie behind the belt, appear fully rounded in their emergent positions I00, I.

Between their positions at lob, lOb and I00, [00' appear dotted triangular areas of which typical lateral dimensions are indicated at Illbb and IBM). At any point along either of these triangular areas the dotted width indicates relatively the amplitude of the oscillation there occurring.

It is not to be supposed that the ribbons are being brushed or thrust laterally at any point to the extent indicated by the width of the triangular area of that point. On the contrary, on approaching the bite of the belt l8 each ribbon becomes rounded and maintains its rounded form thenceforth. It is not visibly displaced either to right or to left but emerges along its own median line as at I Be or Inc. This rounding action visibly begins, in fact, before a ribbon reaches the belt as will be more fully related hereinafter.

The amplitudes of oscillation expressed by the progressively diminishing width of the triangles are those of the belt which-having at the top a sidewise vibration-has no such vibration at the point of emergence of the rovings.

To clarify this point further I have drawn Figs. 3, 4, and 5. In Fig. 3 the two illustrative ribbons are shown at lflb, lllb' lying on the screen 1 as it passes over mandrel Ma and meets the rubbing belt l8 as said belt bends over the mandrel Ila, this mandrel being for the moment regarded as free to rotate but having no oscillatory motion.

In Fig. 4 the mandrel Ha with the belt l8 stretched upon it has had given to it its first half of one complete oscillation and has moved over (downwardly in the plane of the drawings) as far as it can go. The two ribbons are shown reacting to this lateral motion. Both are shown partially rolled up on themselves, presenting to the belt a blunt, tapered point.

In Fig. 5, which is taken after the mandrel Ila and the belt l8 have completed their return oscillatory movement, both ribbons appear as they now react to the periodic lateral motion of the belt. Both ribbons here present points centrally disposed of theirwidth. This is the appearance they always present to the eye when the apparatus is in operation if viewed directly from above.

It will be observed that in Fig. 4 the first action of the oscillating mandrel Fla with its belt 18 is to roll up that edge of each ribbon which it first finds opposed to it, and on its return stroke (as in Fig. to roll up the other edge for a like reason. This rolling-up action extends backward upon the screen so that, in fact, the ribbons reach the belt as (to some extent) already-rounded structures and are therefore better enabled to withstand injury from the oscillatory motion.

It should not be inferred from the above account that the weak, partly-wet ribbons of paperpulp are subjected at any point to rough handling. On the contrary they are manipulated by the de-- vices shown with extreme delicacy and-instead of suffering injuryare enabled, by the rubbing action, to acquire a tensile strength such that upon their emergence from the rubbing 'process they may be extended in free-swinging catenaries to a hundred or more feet if desired whereas the wet ribbons, before being rubbed, could not be carried without support for any appreciable distance.

Fig. 6 shows my system of collecting the rovings (i. e. the rounded rods of pulp hereinafter designated as rovings) I00, I, etc, the ribhon-forming and rubbing apparatus being here repeated from Fig. 1, to make clear the necessary synchronization of the forming rubbing and collecting apparatus, with this difference that in Fig. the base of the frame 30 is shown carrying at its right-hand end a housing 28 in which is mounted a motor-driven brush 29 rotating rapidly, to be presently described.

The rovings are here shown flowing downwardly and laying themselves upon a moving sheet 2| of--for example-paper or cloth called hereinafter the collecting sheet and for brevity the sheet. This sheet is carried in rolled up form 22 on a mandrel 23 carried by frames of which one is shown at 24.

The same frames 24 are extended to carry another mandrel 25 on which is fixed a core 26 of relatively large diameter upon which the rovings lllc, etc., lying on the sheet 2| are reeled up with the sheet. Since the rovings normally place themselves upon the sheet without sldeway-sway they become reeled up with it in closely spaced parallel convolutions, each roving having, between any two of its successive convolutions the protection of a convolution of the sheet and a clearance space between itself and its neighbors. The sheet and its associated parts are hereinafter called the collecting system". A conventional system of drives is diagrammatically illustrated in Fig. 6 as follows. On the mandrel Ila is mounted the pulley P which is rotated by a system of belts from the motor pulley 40. This pulley 40 is mounted on the motor shaft 43 which carries a driving cone 4| of a pair of cone pulleys, the driven cone being marked 42. The adjustment of these cones is made in the usual way by a belt shifting device (not shown). The driven cone is mounted on the shaft 44 which carries the universal joint 45 which in turn drives a splined shaft 41 carrying spur gear 48 engaging with a ring gear 49. This ring gear 49 is mounted upon a link 5| upon the ends of which are mounted the pulleys 52, 52. Around these pulleys passes the belt 55 which rests upon and drives the collecting sheet 2| reeled on the core Bolted to .the base of the collecting system is an upwardly-extending and leftwardly-curving 'metal guard and cutter plate 21 extending from side to side of the collecting system and sopositioned that its fiat top portion 21cc makes rubbing contact with the rotating brush 29 when, for a moment, it lies beneath the brush, as will be explained.

The purpose of the plate and the brush in association is to effect the quick severance of each roving at the instant when one collecting system is full and its replacement by an empty system necessary.

This means of breaking the rovings will be better understood by reference to the empty reserve collecting system shown at the left of the system just described and so positioned as to be quickly drawn toward the right into position to be filled with rovings. This reserve system is identical with the one described and its essential parts are numbered substantially in the same manner, the frame of it, 24a. being identical with the frame 24 of the filled system, 2241. with 22, 23a. with 23, and 26a with 26.

The collecting system carried by the frame 24 being here shown full, it is rapidly drawn away to the right without stoppage of the cylinder or the rubbing device. As it is so moved the continuously falling rovings fall in some confusion upon the empty mandrel 23. As the filled system is moved still further away the reserve system follows it (and may in fact be linked to it). As this reserve system moves to the right the falling rovings drop now upon the guard and cutter plate 210. of the reserve system. To effect the substitution of a filled collecting sheet for an empty one, the series of frames 24 may be carried on a system of rollers B so that the operator having occasion to bring into position a fresh collecting sheet may move the series ahead manually or otherwise.

With further movement of the reserve system the rovings (still unbroken) fall directly upon the reserve collecting sheet 2la. in some confusion. The reserve collecting-system mandrel 26 has-in preparation for this event-been connected to the motive source 52 which rotates it so that the collecting sheet is meanwhile advancing at a speed which keeps it in synchronism with the rovings.

At this moment however the flat top. surface ofthe guard and cutter plate 21b comes briefly into engagement with the rubbing brush 29 and the soft rovings are thus severed, being shredded and disintegrated between the plate and the brush. When this occurs the dangling ends of l the rovings emerging from the rubbing device fall upon the collecting sheet Ma and are swept up with it into the reel 26a. They are momentarily in confusion but rapidly orient themselves in response to their orderly delivery from the rubbing device and thereafter build up smoothly in the reel. It is obviously possible to have the plates 21 and 21a so lengthened and otherwise redesigned that each such plate shall sever the tail-ends of the rovings of its own corresponding reel, but by the arrangement illustrated I lessen the interval of confusion to which the fresh empty system is subjected and thus start it with a more nearly uniform original diameter of the reel 25a. In the arrangement shown the wasted ends come at the completion of each reeling operation where they occasion no difliculty except that of plucking them off.

In Fig. '7 I show a theoretical and fragmentary view of a filled collecting system, the guard being removed for greater clearness of view. This is the view the observer would get if the motion of theentire apparatus could be arrested, the r bbon-forming and rubbing devices removed and a view-point taken somewhere along the vertical plane of the downwardly-moving rovings as suggested by the dotted line l1. The rovings are exposed to view at Hlc as they lie above or upon the sheet 2| which has here passed from the mandrel 23 to meet them and reel them up on the mandrel 25 on which (as concealed by the convolutions of the sheet) they appear in dotted lines.

It is essential to this invention that the sheet 2| shall move forward in exact synchronism with the rovings and that it shall be of a length adequate to permit the reeling up of the rovings in suitable lengths such as five to ten thousand feet. For a given and sustained linear speed the angular speed of the reels will therefore undergo progressive change. One may either drive the mandrel 25 through a variable-speed pulley-system controlled in accord with the changing diameter of the reel, or the uniform speed may be provided by pressing upon the face of the reel a positively driven constant-speed friction drum. It is obvious that the shaft 41 being splined and carried by the universal coupling may be swung upwardly or downwardly as indicated by the double headed arrow in Fig. 6, carrying with it the assembled pulleys 52 and belt 55. This may be done at the moment of shifting one collecting sheet for another. It will be observed that the collecting sheet must pick up the rovings in synchronism with the delivery of these rovings from the screen 1. Consequently the system of pulleys, cone drives and gears illustrated is figured so that the linear speed of the roving as it leaves the screen I shall be the same as the circumferential speed of the pulley 52 which winds up the rovings and the paper together on the collecting sheet. As is usual in all textile collecting systems, synchronism thus illustrated is approximately correct, but minute differentials of speed are taken care of by shifting the usual belt shifter of the cone pulleys 4|, 42.

As material of the sheet itself I preferably use] paper or thin cloth in a roll corresponding to the axial length of the core 26.

When an individual collecting system is filled the reel is removed and positioned in relation to a system of spindles or (preferably) spinning pots, the rovings fed individually or in two's, threes, etc., to the spinning devices, the convolutions of the collecting sheet as they are freed being dried and reeled up for reuse on mandrel 23.

No material waste need occur up to the spinning stage. The rovings prior to being twisted are readily disintegrated in water and pumped back to the pulp source, so that the losses incident to changing successive collecting systems are apparent rather than material. However, after my rovings are twisted they do not disintegrate in water without severe beating or other shredding action and it E important to keep the inevitable wastes of any spinning process within bounds.

Though I am not here directly concerned with the methods of spinning, since any of the conventional systems are applicable, it is essential that the operator take cognizance of the peculiar conditions incidentto my processes. Thus the pulp ribbons were originally engorged with water, too fragile to endure other handling than that indicated in my ribbon-forming devices and of a substance and density such that, if dried and calendered they would individually measure only about one one-thousandth of an inch in thickness. (In making a #8 single yarn of the usual cotton count their width is about -inch.) In the case just cited parenthetically the ribbon might, if dried suitably, be rolled up into a rodlike form about 0.02 inch diameter, but in fact the #8 roving which I form has a materially greater diameter because of the barely perceptible pressure to which I subject it while it is being rolled up into a roving-form from the flat ribbon, and because of its water-content at the moment.

The water thus associated with the fibres adds to the weight of the roving, and some of this water persists necessarily through the wet-spinning operation. This water burden in the whirling roving (at the moment of being spun) makes it difficult for the operator to maintain a spindlespeed such as is used in an equivalent cottonspinning operation without danger of rupturing the wet strand before it has acquired enough twist to make it permanently stout. If, by contrast, I dry my roving before spinning it I conserve its potential softness and bulk but at a loss of tensile strength which loss grows greater with increasing degrees of dryness permitted at the time of spinning. I therefore regard ring-spinning systems as best suited to my yarns when softness and bulk are the chief objectives. Otherwise I prefer spinning-pots. o

By spinning pots I mean open-top pots so mounted on vertical spindles and rotated rapidly that aroving may be fed into the pot through suitable delivery passages and its free end immediately flung centrifugally into contact with the inner wall-surface of the pot, and the further length of roving so admitted caused to coil itself up in response to a suitable up-and-down motion either of the pot or of the delivery parts. Such pots have been known as Topham boxes and are now I believe sufiiciently known to the textile world to need no further identification.

Furthermore I have found it more convenient to make constant-speed delivery of a roving to a pot than to one of a frame of spindles when said roving is one of a large number being synchronously released from the convolutions of my collecting sheet, for reasons apparent to those versed in textile operations. Again, if a break occurs in any individual roving the advancing end may be conveniently fed in without knotting or stopping the pot.

As to the further purposes of the collecting sheet the operator must note again that the optimal water-content for spinning may not be the same as that for roving (i. e., for converting my wet pulp-ribbons into rod-like form). However the reduction of such water content (or, if needed, its increase) has hitherto been marked by difliculty and expense because the wet rovings are flaccid, easily deformed, liable to mutual entanglement and needing considerable care and time for the equable removal of their surplus water. By this present invention I cause an absorbent collecting sheet to act not only as a carrier of the plurality of rovings but also as a means of absorbing part of their water-content between the stages of roving and of spinning without having recourse to other intermediate rewinding or other storage measures.

By the suitable selection of paper or cloth of desired weight and absorbency, as material for the collecting sheet I can now determine and control the water-content which the rovings are to retain. Thus if free water has two paths open to it, one into a wet material and one into a dry, it will normally choose the dry path and (since the rovings and the sheet may be-of substantially similar structure as to their component fibres) the water originally in the rovings will shortly bethe sheet in about the proportion of their respective masses.

If however one wishes to produce stout thin compact wiry yarns he may make the sheet of Water-pioofed fabric or of waxed or impregnated paper and subsequently spin the rovings with their best water-content for such results.

If, as will be more usually the case, one wishes to produce bulky and only normally stout yarns simulating cotton in bulk, appearance and tensile strength, he may use as sheet material cotton cloth or paper capable of taking up a large part of the water. If he chooses paper he will preferably use one of the new so-called wetstrength papers which have been so conditioned in manufacture as to retain about their normal absorbency but not disintegrate when wet. I

It is to be noted that I do not overcome the need of water removal but only transfer the problem from the locus of the rovings to that of a sheet from which the removal of surplus water is convenient and cheap.

In reference to the collecting sheet a further comment is necessary to the understanding of this invention. If, for instance, one lets the wet rovings fall from the rubbing device into a can or cans they press upon and deform one another to some extent and in irregular ways; and they also tend to adhere together. Similar effects follow from reeling up the wet rovings without protection of their flaccid substance. And with this present invention it is quite possible to deform To minimize this residual difiiculty I am constrained to reel the rovings up (between convolutions of the sheet) on a core of substantial diameter and to avoid tensioning the sheet as far as conditions permit. The finished reel must in fact be as loosely reeled as may be while still spacing and confining the rovings suitably. By using a core 26 of about two-feet diameter on the mandrel 25 I distribute the dead weight of the accumulating rovings and paper (or cloth) so that no element of a roving is subjected to greater deforming stress than it can endure without serious deformation. Disfiguration of the rovings is further avoided by using as soft a-paper-as will serve. It is however desirable to maintain the filler reel in slow rotation between the roving and spinning operations and to support it on hangers by its mandrel.

Transfer of water from rovings to sheet-material occurs rapidly until the two reach equilibrium as to water-content, and thereafter, evaporation may reduce the water-content of the rovings too far for best spinning if intermediate storage be prolonged. In my opinion complete drying of the roving between their formation as such and their subsequent spinning is not desirable. It is true that often the rovingswill be passed through a fluid bath at the moment preceding spinning, and this bath may contain pigments or other conditioning materials in fluid or emulsified form such as latex, dispersed asphalt or other additive material. But a dried and rewetted roving does not regain on rewetting the statuyithad so long as its originally contained water was present. This conclusion is consistent with experienceand is illuminated by reference to one yarn made by my process compared with another of like count formed from ribbons of paper moistened for spinning. Invariably my yarns will be found softer, stouter and more suited to important tex-- tile uses as in weaving, knitting and the like. The cause may be obscure, but I favor the theory that the original water-content of the pulp is more intimately associated with the fibres, to

make them limp and pliable, than any water which one may attempt to force into association with previously and completely dried fibre, and that such water (originally in the pulp) is most effective to secure the mutual bonding and/or twisting of the fibres.

What I therefore claim and desire to secure by Letters Patent is:-

1. Means for individually rubbing into rod-like form a plurality of spaced parallel pulp-ribbons said means comprising in combination the papermaking screen whereon said ribbons lie, spaced mandrels, a moving belt of resilient material mounted on said mandrels and maintained in frictional engagement with said ribbons, and a reciprocating engine which imparts to one only of said mandrels and to portions of said belt an oscillatory motion in the plane of the ribbons and at right angles to their line of forward motion whereby to progressively diminish the amplitude of oscillation of the belt over a predetermined length thereof.

2. Meansfor individually rolling upa plurality of parallel-lying pulp strands into rod-like form and for delivering said strands so rolled up in stabilizedrectilinear paths,- said means consisting of (a) the forwardly-moving screen whereon said strands lie, (b) a roller-belt presenting to said strands a substantially flat forward-moving stretch of frictional material, (0) a reciprocating motive mechanism-which imparts to said forwardly-moving stretch of frictional material an oscillatory motion across the faces of said strands, (d) means for progressively diminishing the amplitude of oscillation of said stretch of frictional material over a predetermined length thereof and (e) a delivery outlet for said strands the lips of which outlet consist of the screen, where it passes over a roller and so changes its direction of motion, and the belt where it passes without residual oscillation over a non-oscillating mandrel.

3. In the high-speed production from a single cylinder-mold machine of a multiplicity of spaced parallel-lying pulp ribbons and the conversion of said ribbons into rovings by means of a laterally oscillating rubbing device, the step which consists in supplementing the initial rubbing efiect of said device upon any element of a given roving by continuing to subject said element to said rubbing effect in steadily diminishing amounts until said eflect ceases.

4. In the production of rovings of wet pulp the step which consists in collecting them upon a moving sheet of stout water-absorbent material and reeling them up therewith.

5. In the preparation of Wet pulp rovings for subsequent spinning, means for removing at least part of their water-content, said means consisting essentially of a mounted reel of absorbent sheet-material, a mounted and driven mandrel onto which said sheet material is reeled up at constant linear speed and onto which sheet the saidwet rovings are delivered at a linear speed equal to that of the sheet and reeled up with it.

6. In an apparatus for the formation of pulp rovings between a forwardly-moving foraminous carrier-screen and a rubbing device coacting with said screen, means for facilitating the formation of said rovings and their subsequent orderly delivery and distribution, said means consisting of an oscillating mandrel whereon said device is brought into contact with said screen and a non-oscillating mandrel, substantially parallel to said oscillating mandrel, whereon said device is withdrawn from said contact.

7. An instrumentality for the continuous orderly delivery collection and storage of wet pulp rovings comprising carrier sheets of absorbent material one of which sheets is disposed to receive said rovings, means for winding up said latter sheet and said rovings into a reel at a linear speed synchronized to that of the formation of said rovings, means for the withdrawal of a completed reel and the introduction of a carrier sheet in its stead and means for severing the said rovings during the substitution of said carrier sheet for said completed reel.

8. An apparatus for collecting and reeling up continuously-formed moisture-containing pulp rovings consisting essentially of a succession of movable frames; a pair of spaced mandrels carried by each such frame one mandrel of each pair carrying a roll of absorbent sheet material the leading end of said material being attached to the remaining mandrel; means to move said sheet from the roll-carrying mandrel to theremaining mandrel at a linear speed substantially like that at which the rovings are formed; means whereby each of said frames may be moved in succession into position to enable the dropping of said rovings upon said sheet; means to reel up said sheet and said rovings in convolutions upon said remaining mandrel and means to sever the rovings during the replacement of one of said frames by its next succeeding frame.

9. A method for maintaining free from entanglement the individual rovings of a plurality of parallel-positioned wet pulp rovings and for disposal of their surplus water-content which consists in reeling up said rovings in parallel posi- ,3- tion between the convolutions of a reel of waterabsorbent sheet material whereby such surplusage is distributed by capillarity throughout said sheet.

10. A method for ensuring the orderly collection and confinement of a plurality of wet pulp rovings in spaced parallel helixes and for their dehydration to a predetennined extent, consisting in feeding them in parallelism to a moving sheet of absorbent sheet material and reeling them up therewith under suflicient tension to maintain their parallelism.

11. A rubbing device for facilitating the conversion of moist pulp ribbons into rovings while said rovings lie upon a foraminous carrier, said device consisting of an endless belt of frictional material, two spaced parallel mandrels carrying said belt, bearings whereon said mandrels may rotate, a frame carrying said mandrels in said bearings, means for rotating at least one of said mandrels, means for causing one only of said mandrels to oscillate along its axial line to impart to portions of said endless belt an oscillatory motion of progressively diminishing amplitude and means to bring said belt into frictional engagement with said carrier and said ribbons.

12. As an instrumentality for the conversion of moist pulp ribbons into rovings, the combination of a forwardly-moving foraminous carrier for said ribbons with a rubbing device, said device consisting of an endless belt of flexible frictional material, two spaced parallel mandrels carrying said belt, bearings whereon said mandrels may rotate, a frame carrying said bearings, means for rotating at least one of said mandrels, means for causing one only of said mandrels to oscillate along its axial line to impart to portions of said endless belt an oscillatory motion of progressively diminishing amplitude and means to bring said frame into position to cause said belt to make frictional engagement with said carrier and said ribbons.

13. A method of conditioning wet pulp rovings pulp strands, those steps consisting in feeding them in confined parallel relation while subjecting them to an oscillatory rubbing of progressively decreasing amplitude over a predetermined 

